Last weekend when this olelongrooffan was out at the Daytona International Speedway, I spotted that funky Centro Porsche. Well parked next to was a Spyder replica. This one is not a Beck but rather a Thunder Ranch.

I spoke to the owner of it and asked him if it was a Beck? “No, I took my Beck home earlier and brought this one out.”

Yeah, the dude owns, not one, but two Spyder replicas. I had not previously heard of Thunder Ranch Speedster but apparently more than one company can survive building replicas of the car that Max Hoffman talked Ferry Porsche into building way back in the 1950’s.

He does however, have both of them for sale as is noted in the console of his Thunder Ranch. He mentioned he would let this pretty maroon one built in 2003 go for a cool $25K.

All in all, quite a pretty little open top play toy.

But this was the Beck Spyder he had out at the track earlier that Saturday. Of course it had to be done up in memory of James Dean.

This olelongrooffan loves the cockpits of these things and the half tonneau cover over the passenger seat is an added touch.

And yeah, seeing that “Little Bastard” was cool that day, even if it was a replica.

Id take a beck rep anyday. There would be no anxiety about parki.g or wrecking or anything else that would hurt the ever climbing value of an original.

MattC

Tom McBurnie (sp?) owns Thunder Ranch. He was also famous for the Ferrari replica used on the Miami Vice series. He used a C3 frame/engine combo with a fiberglass Ferrari bodywork that had great proportions. So much so,that Ferrari essentially sued him out of business for making Ferrari convertibles. He focused exclusively on Porsche replicas right now that are very well made "kits". I give a pass to anyone making good quality Porsche kits because one can get a reasonable kit that has the performance of the real thing without the associated cost.

They're both just lovely. Normally, I detest replicars, because phony. However, well done examples like these, as well as solid copies of Cobras appeal to me. Yeah, there's no way anybody except the filthy rich would be able to Hoon an original Porsche Speedster or 356, let alone an original Cobra, and I'll never be able to afford any of the fine replicas available today, but I like the thought. Hell, these Porsche tributes are nothing more than arrogant Volkswagens under the swoopy bodywork, and I've had a VW Bug. I can aspire to one of these nice shiny toys.

Van_Sarockin

Thanks for circling back to this! That 550 replica is awful sweet and nicely turned out. Gotta think about that price/value proposition a little.

busplunge

Personal to LRF: That '67 Spitfire had a tonneau cover too.

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